Collaborative, commercial C-suite leader who develops strategic solutions to drive business growth and deliver positive outcomes. Significant global experience advising Boards, managing corporate transactions and transformation, and leading through crisis.
Lauren Aste is an accomplished international C-Suite leader in the travel & transportation sector with broad expertise in global corporate finance, strategic M&A, restructuring, investor relations, technology, privacy, employee matters, regulatory affairs, enterprise risk management, corporate social responsibility, compliance, and governance. Ms. Aste is a strategic and trusted business partner to CEOs, management teams, and Boards. She has closely advised Board and Committee Chairs on M&A matters, capital raises, reorganizations, governance frameworks, Board member nominations and assessments, CEO succession, and executive compensation matters. Ms. Aste has managed sizable global teams in both high-growth and transformational environments – be they private equity-backed, publicly-held or family-owned – successfully advancing corporate strategy with a focus on business continuity and crisis management.
Ms. Aste currently serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary for CWT, a global business travel management company operating in approximately 150 countries, where she holds a key role on CWT’s Executive Leadership Team. In 2020, Ms. Aste led the company’s transition from a sophisticated family-owned business to a private-equity backed business – while simultaneously providing strategic oversight for a global cyber security incident impacting the company – as well as advocating for legislation to support the travel industry in the wake of Covid-19 resulting in the $454 BN US CARES Act. She also led the design and successful execution of the company’s recapitalization initiatives to further consolidate its shareholder base in 2021 and 2023, collectively reducing the company’s debt by nearly $1BN. Ms. Aste currently leads all CWT legal and regulatory matters and supports integration planning in connection with the acquisition of CWT by Amex GBT (NYSE: GBTG) announced in March 2024. She is recognized for her caring leadership approach, commitment to company culture and diversity, and for leading high-performing teams.
As a result of Covid-19’s impact on the travel industry, Ms. Aste co-led several innovative furlough and restructuring initiatives at CWT to reduce costs while retaining business critical talent. These actions ultimately resulted in CWT reducing global headcount from 18,000 to 11,000 staff across multiple jurisdictions and involved complex communication plans with employees and local works councils. To help respond to headcount reductions in Legal, she launched a self-serve AI-driven global legal digital contracting platform to support the business and expanded the capabilities of CWT’s shared services team in India to manage workflow.
Ms. Aste has been a driver of CWT’s corporate social responsibility initiatives worldwide, as founder of CWT’s Government Affairs and Anti-Human Trafficking Task Forces and as CWT’s delegate to the World Travel & Tourism Council. Ms. Aste also serves as Board Chair of the World Childhood Foundation, Inc., a royal foundation established by Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden to end violence against children, in which role she successfully led an Executive Director transition in 2023.
Ms. Aste holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Wellesley College, a Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law and a Master’s degree in French Studies from the New York University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.